Yes, unlucky.
That’s the opinion I came away with after watching this one.
The first half was very average stuff and frankly, it bored me to tears. We created nothing bar a weak Ayew header and I don’t think we even got a corner.
Wednesday were by far the better side and they created what seemed a lot more chances, but in reality they hardly had a decent effort, a shot hitting the crossbar apart.
Which was all quite worrying really, as I thought the midfield looked particularly weak. I know the line-up was supposed to be a 4-4-2, but if you look at the actual players who started, it doesn’t seem like that to me.
The second half was much better though and we were easily the better side, putting Wednesday under serious pressure for long periods.
I’m not really an analyser of games as such and I much prefer to just watch things generally, but today I’m going to try and break things down a bit more specifically and rate each player.
I don’t really like pinning myself down and it’s only an opinion, remember;
Gollini; 5
I thought he was poor today, simple as. He made one decent stop, but went for a ball when he had no chance, which left the goal wide open. His decision-making looked terrible and of course, he was at fault for the goal after an awful attempt at a clearance. He quite clearly cost us the game, but I’ll put it down to nerves. Looks massively inexperienced and needs to seriously improve quickly.
Hutton; 6
Didn’t get going at all in the first half and while he was better in the second, he was still ineffective going forward and worse in defence. Got embarrassingly turned all over the place by Forrestier at one stage.
Elphick; 8
As soon as I saw him geeing up the players during the pre-match huddle, I was impressed. To then see him with a bandage on his head encouraging the fans and still heading the ball with gusto told me exactly why RDM signed him. We have our leader and he was also reasonably solid in a defence that didn’t look particularly happy.
Baker; 7
Didn’t really do anything wrong and was mostly pretty solid overall.
Cissokho; 6
I’ve liked this player up to now, but thought he was poor today. His crossing was poor, although in fairness he looked a bit better defence-wise. Doesn’t look confident at all, to me.
Westwood; 5
A five because he’s purely average. Perhaps I’m biased as I’ve never rated him, but I just don’t see it at all. Had a shot which he should have buried and that’s all I remember. How some rated him as a Premier league player is just beyond me, as he just does nothing, in my book.
Gardner; 5
Another player I’ve always liked, but just poor again and looked like he was at risk of getting sent off. Incredibly disappointing, because he’s highly rated at other clubs, but we never see it for the Villa. Trying too hard, maybe?
Bacuna; 5
Was he actually playing in the first half?
Got more involved in the second half, but didn’t do much.
Ayew; 8
Looks a class apart compared to the rest of the side, but he’s wasted on the left. He seemed to go more inside in the second half, where he seems more effective, but looked too greedy at times. Should have done better when he created a chance at close range on the left, but looked our most threatening player.
McCormack; 7
Didn’t seem quite on top of his game and was subbed. I suspect he has a niggle, but I saw enough to convince me he looks like he’ll produce.
Gestede; 6
I have high hopes for him, as this is his level. But we’re not giving him the right service, so it’s hard to condemn him completely. He won one ball and headed it down perfectly for McCormack to run onto, which is exactly what I’d want from him.
Subs;
Tshibola 7, can’t say I saw much either way, but he was definitely a better option than Gardner today.
Grealish 7, caused problems, but often went too deep in helping out on the defensive side. What’s the point of that?
If you’re going to reinforce the defence, get a defender or defensive mid on.
Green, 7, again hard to mark, as he was just helping out at the back too. If you’re going to give him minutes, get him doing what he does best!
I don’t know, you can probably mark all the players up or down a point or so, but hopefully I’m not too far off.
The main thing is I don’t believe losing today was a major worry.
Wednesday got to the play-offs last season remember and they’re much more geared for this league than we are currently. We’ll add a couple more players at least and today was interesting because of the players who didn’t start, in my opinion.
Regardless of what the official reasons are, I suspect the likes of Gabby, Richards and Lescott will not be getting a look in.
I see the press are saying that we’re just up to our usual standard, but I didn’t see it like that at all.
We were unlucky to lose and overall might have actually have done enough to have won it, which would have been a great result.
Another important thing is that we were still trying, even after we conceded.
From what I saw today, I’m encouraged.
We’ll be up there come the end of the season and Holloway will be eating his words.
Definitely not as bad as is being made out by the press, imo.
Are u joking Badger it was woeful. Yes we put some good moves together 2nd half but we were never going to score in a million years. Same old defensive errors were there. The only positive for me was Elphnick a proper captain with steel. Something we’ve lacked for years
Bit harsh on the keeper. Apart from the mistake he was good.
Hmm, I’d have to look at it again to argue the point, but that one where he came out and left the goal open was decidedly poor.
He didn’t convince me in the slightest, I’m afraid 🙁
Having thought about it again, he’s lucky to get a 5.
Bloody awful and Guzan would have been mudrered for that particular decision.
Inexperienced and it showed, imo.
Agree with Benno, I thought Gollini did ok considering his experience, he will improve with time…Any other defence would have cleared up his terrible slice, but we had the pin ball chuckle brothers.
That’s like saying a striker was good except for the open goal he missed! That mistake cost us this is exactly why we went down last year as we were architects of our own downfall
Yeah I didn’t think the keeper was that bad apart from a couple of mistakes… I think we desperately need a right back if not put Richards in there
We are so venerable down the right imo And I hope we get the hull striker to,i think we’re gonna need him. I don’t know why Tshibola didn’t start but I think he needs to also so does Grealish!
over reactions by some villa fans really, villa performed pretty well. restricted wednesday to half chances at best, even during first half were wednesday were the dominate team, villa were creating better chances.
second half villa stepped up a gear, they pressed wednesday into hitting longer balls, which presented us more of the ball then we got first half, but we never scored, this from a few really good opportunities, but for a freak of a goal this game would have ended a draw, both teams did deserve something.
i have to agree. with a few villa fans about gestede and lack of width. i mentioned soon as i saw the team selections. its a worry i av to admit, but unlike the bro friendly, we did use him 2 flick on headers for ayew and mccormack to hunt down them flicks. but gestede needs proper width, crosses were he just need to head onto goal, if hes too actually score goals as he did in blackburns team. i don’t believe our fullbacks can manage to cross these balls, which i think is the plan. so i don’t understand the reasons for playing gestede just using him to flick ons. its like stoke playing delap just for his throws but stoke used them to cause more dangers than we used gestede
but i was pleased with the effort,elphick was stand out. performance and leadership, villa will improve game by game. we will get promotion this result is only a blip. have alittle faith
Hi all, in Greece I tea at the minute, had the score 2 hours after the match was played, my lad was saying impressed although we lost and our captain was just that a captain. Ok we will settle down and build a descent team let’s give him time. Back soon been promoting our website to other Villian.
I’m looking forward to the Rotherham game already still early days yesterday’s result will be easily forgotten.UTV
Need a result at Luton to give some confidence for the 2 home matches.
If it’s a league cup tie we need to lose it
Has the OS stopped updating it’s still stuck on the 20th of June on my handset
Giddy, the OS is up to date if you access it via 1st4fans. However the opinions section found via that site used to include this Blog, but on 20th June it stopped doing so. I am not sure why, probably something we wrote!
So the app is defunked now???
I think it is. What used to be all in one is now 2 separate apps.
I am encouraged by this report, I did not see the game so I am not going to contest those who did. We know for a fact that Cissokho and Hutton do not get anywhere near the goal line when attacking and swing over a cross which is really a diagonal forward pass. What is needed is a winger’s cross for Gestede. We are not going to get those from these crappy full-backs.
Ive been ‘saddened’ for years but feeling optimistic.
Firstly our owner has attended a game, our manager and background staff are not afraid to change things and overall thought the subs were good, although Grealish could have come on earlier maybe.
Gollini is a massive improvement on Guzan, Baker and Elphick were solid, Ayew played well, McCormack looked good, God knows what he will be like when 100% fit and I like the look of Tshibola, him and Grealish will do some damage this year.
Our owner has personally told us we have more players to arrive and I am looking forward to this years football..
The first game of the season means bugger all !
UTV.
I started to read and it sounded good…..Then the words “Gollini is a massive improvement on Guzan” came out………
I cannot read any longer
*Helenius – This is his first English competitive game we should give him time, I promise you will be agreeing by Xmas and I will buy you a top with “Gallini is God” on the back
or Gollini
More like Gollini will be gone if he’s any good
I’ll hold you to that……. 😉
First game means sod all.
Last year Bournemouth 0 villa 1
Good point Steve – there are another 45 games to go!
We have to look to the quality in the Championship and stop thinking about ourselves as a PL club. Wednesday will be in the running for promotion so losing narrowly to them is not a disaster – on the other hand I can’t see Fulham doing any better than the last two seasons. Arguably Newcastles defeat is far more damaging than ours!
See RDM has told Flabby he’s finished at the Villa – top bit of news
Fantastic news, my only worry is he sits on his arse taking his 50k a week, telling everyone he wants to fight for his place !
He’s been sat on his arse now for God knows how many seasons so there’ll be no change there then.
LOL – one and only member of the ‘Bum Squad’!
Here’s a good read and a 100% spot on shout, imo;
http://www.shoot.co.uk/aston-villa-crave-a-midfield-enforcer-someone-like-crystal-palaces-mile-jedinak/
I believe he’s available too?
Thought we had made a bid for him Badger?
Have we?
I haven’t heard that one, but if true I hope we get him.
We’re far too lightweight in the middle, imo.
Sorry Badger you must have watching a different match to me mate, imo the performance was at best woeful and don’t get me started on Mutton and Jestwood, ***king useless the pair of them.
The game plan?
Tiki-taka football?
Barca we aint.
Ffs inject some urgency and pace into our game, get behind the opposition and hurt them.
This here Tiki-taka business really does do my nut in.
Woeful as a Premier league performance perhaps, BWS, but don’t forget we were playing one of the better Championship sides, hence I thought the performance was about what we need to see.
Of course, I’d love us to be brilliant and piss every game, but it ain’t going to happen.
I totally agree we need to up the pace though and I did actually suggest the first half was poor.
As I said, the main pluses for me were we didn’t collapse and we kept on trying.
Hopefully better footy will come with more confidence, which I guess we’ll get after winning some games; which we will, no problem, imo.
Woeful even by Championship standards, if all we have to be grateful for is that we ‘didn’t collapse’ and that we ‘kept plugging away’ then god help us, in fact, they sound like excuses of last 6 years, and essentially means, we just weren’t good enough.
The fact is, we have gone into the new season with pretty much the same faces, and it’s the same old Villa unfortunately.
Nobody expects a complete overhaul in one pre-season but they do and should expect jokers like Bacuna to be shown the door, especially after his comments last season, we should have signed Diame who is far better, but once again, we are frigid in the market and are left with the same old dross, as much as i like Hutton and Cissokho as they are triers and give their all, they just aren’t good enough, same with Westwood, yet we seem to be stuck with these clowns and somehow expect the results to change, madness.
Baker is a calamity waiting to happen, much like Clark was, the fact that we only brought in Elphick to a defence which shipped 76 goals, yes thats 76 goals, last season, is absolutely criminal, that should have been the first thing to have been sorted out the minute the final whistle of the Arsenal game.
It beggars belief that we have not brought in a right back who can defend and another Elphick type centre half, and changed our formation to a 4-4-2 so that the full backs actually get some form of cover, instead of this pony system we’ve been trying, and failing to play for the last god knows how long, that seems to leave our weak defence ultimately exposed every time.
I cannot for the life of me see how we can possibly get anywhere near promotion this season until some glaringly obvious things are addressed.
Bad times.
guest
why can t the doc and rdm see it is beyond belief,think that players who stank for last 4/5 years hutton westwood gardner bacuna are suddenly going to be transformed into players that can play the game
Agree Guest good post
Hallelujah – Somebody talking sense
I started watching with an open mind but thinking how many of their lot would I swap for ours? 90 minutes later I came to the conclusion – All of them!
I admire your optimism but I can’t see it myself Badger, it’s looking a continuation of last seasons dross and yes I appreciate Rome wasn’t built in a day but as Cloughie said when asked about the secret of good management…
“Good Players!”
The one thing in very short supply at VP.
Last season a lot of pundits hinted that this team would struggle in the championship. And let’s face it it’s virtually the same team. The only improvement is Elphnick and possibly McCormack in the long term. Those 2 should be enough to keep our head above water but virtually the rest of the team will struggle they are crap
Agree with Badger 100%
Never.
Time people woke up and actually realized we are shit.
We play Luton on Wednesday in the league cup. Looking at our squad we’ll exceed expectations if we get through to the next round.
come on Stubbs. How many Luton Town players can you name without looking it up?
dsvilla
name luton players
if anyone of villa squad swear they are professional footballers especially in hutton sissko baker bacuna westwood gardner never mind flabby richards and lescott case they are LIARS they are conmen conning a wage out of villa for years
None
OK I’m happy to be a dissenting voice. We were poor in the first half. We did attack with pace and numbers during the second half. McCormack should have scored, and Ayew messed up a good opportunity. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the best teams in the division, and were very unfortunate to be defeated in the play offs. Caravel is in his third season there and they were 13th in his first season. Our next game is against Rotherham (in the league). We will meet more Rotherhams than Sheff Weds. After last season even if we changed the whole team it would be unlikely that we would romp the league.
If we are adrift after 6 games or so I am happy to revisit this. I don’t think we will be. Most fans would agree with the assessment of our weak links. I don’t think RDM and Clark are stupid. All new managers will give everyone a clean slate and take a view after a few games. Hutton may be the best RB we have. You can’t fault his effort but we need more in that position.
I actually thought Baker did OK in the match, but he is another I wouldn’t be comfortable to have as first choice at the end of the transfer window.
A small number of changes will leave us in reasonable shape to challenge in this division.
5 or 6 good players in a team will raise the game of the others. I think we aren’t a million miles away here, so its a bit too early to throw in the towel.
An objective, well argued post DS.
How anyone can draw absolute conclusions after one game is beyond me. I suppose the good thing is, on that basis Newcastle’s abject display against Fulham will mean they are fighting relegation alongside us!
Middlesborough lost their opening game of last season whereas we won ours……..
The squad we have is basicallu the same as last year how can anyone be optimistic with that dross
DSVillA, you hit the nail on the head with that post, I agree with everything you said.